Magazine for feeding flattened containers to a filling machine

ABSTRACT

The composite magazine having a high autonomy, for the feeding to a filling or packaging machine of pre-formed and flattened cases or containers, is of the type comprising at least a main magazine (MP 1 ), suitably inclined with respect to the horizontal, in which the containers are piled up and which is provided on the lower end with retainer means ( 35 ) and with means ( 36 ) to extract cyclically a container and to feed it to the operating means of the packaging machine. The main magazine is realised with an extensive length and with a long upper portion which upon command can be opened and closed downwardly, below the same main magazine there being provided an ancillary magazine (MA 1 ) which initially is in a substantially horizontal position, in order to be easily supplied with a pile of containers which the same magazine supports with end supports ( 25, 26 ) and with a bottom plane ( 12 ) which leaves uncovered lateral portions of the bottom of the pile which results laterally and superiorly free. Means are provided which permit that when the extensive upper portion of the main magazine is emptied of the containers, the said portion of the main magazine is opened downwardly and means are provided to raise up the ancillary magazine, so that same inserts its pile of containers in the said main magazine which in phase sequence closes itself to retain the same pile, while the ancillary magazine returns in the low position for the repetition of a new working cycle.

DESCRIPTION

[0001] The invention refers to the filling or packaging machines for solid or liquid goods inside pre-formed cardboard cases or containers, hereinafter called with the generic term containers, which arrive from the paper industry with a tubular and flattened shape, so that they can be fed in great quantity piles in vertical magazines, or, more frequently with an inclination of about 45-60° with respect to the horizontal, in order to be more long and more ample and positioned more low and so that they can be more easily fed by an operator with respect to the firstly used vertical magazines. The present tendency is that to realise magazines having a great length so that they can contain a great quantity of containers, but said magazines result with their terminal portion at a considerable distance from the ground and are hardly achievable by the operator which cyclically must supply them, also because often the said magazines are arranged in pairs and side by side, in order to raise the working autonomy of the packaging machine.

[0002] The technical problem that actually is found in the packaging machines with manual re-filling magazines is therefore of double aspect and consists, on one side, in the discomfort for the operator to execute the re-filling operation and, on the other side, in the difficulty for only one operator to supply the magazines of more packaging machines placed in the same working environment and simultaneously operating.

[0003] The invention intends to resolve these problems with the following idea of solution. Under the inclined and traditional magazine, called main magazine, which can be structured with a great length and consequently with a great autonomy, there is mounted an ancillary magazine initially in a position almost horizontal to be easily re-filled with containers. The ancillary magazine is such that it can support a pile of containers by its ends and by a portion of the lower or bottom side, so that this side results with the free lateral portions and in such a manner that the same pile results free both laterally and at the top. The main magazine is realised with an upper portion having a length proportional to the length of the ancillary magazine, which upon control may open and close itself downwardly. When the said upper portion of the main magazine is emptied of the containers, the same is opened and it is effected the upward movement of the ancillary magazine, to insert its pile of containers in the main magazine that subsequently is closed again to retain the same pile of containers and to allow to the ancillary magazine to return empty in the low position, for repeating a new working cycle.

[0004] The advantages arising from this solution can be summarised in this manner. Easy cyclic feeding of the containers to the ancillary magazine which in the phase of loading is at man-height and in an almost horizontal position. The feeding of the containers to the ancillary magazine can be effected during the long time interval which passes from the filling of the main magazine until the substantial emptying of said magazine, so that an operator has a lot of time in order to feed several simultaneously operating packaging machines. The autonomy of the composite magazine according to the invention is now given from the sum of the capability of the main magazine and the capability of the ancillary magazine. The presence of the ancillary magazine does not substantially modify the overall plan dimensions of the main magazine, because the first one can be substantially placed under the second.

[0005] Further features of the invention, and the advantages deriving therefrom, will appear better evident from the following description of a preferred embodiment of same made with reference to the figures of the attached sheets of drawings, in which:

[0006]FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the composite magazine, with the ancillary magazine in the two working positions;

[0007]FIGS. 2 and 3 are views respectively in plan from the top and in frontal elevation of the composite magazine with the ancillary magazine in the two working positions;

[0008]FIG. 4 shows details of the main magazine in the phase of grasping of the containers from the ancillary magazine in raised position, taken along the section line IV-IV of FIG. 1;

[0009]FIG. 5 is a schematic and top view of the ancillary magazine inserted into the main magazine, the whole taken along the section line V-V of FIG. 4.

[0010] The referred drawings show the example of two main magazines arranged side by side, with the ancillary magazine evidenced in the two different working positions. It is to be understood that the improvements referred to must be intended as protected also for the composite magazine of simple type, that is formed by only a main magazine with the relative ancillary magazine.

[0011] In the figures, with MP1 and MP2 there are indicated the main magazines, inclined, which differ from the magazines of the known type for a superior length and therefore for the reason of having the upper end at a high distance from the ground. Each main magazine is a tubular structure formed by longitudinal guides 1, for example steel rods, which support and guide inferiorly, superiorly and laterally the pile P of containers, and which are, in their turn supported at the ends by means of transversal structures 2, 2′ of annular type (FIGS. 4 and 5), the lower one 2′ of which is fixed to the frame 3 of the packaging machine and is connected to the other structure by means of beams 4 fixed (in their turn) to the frame 3 by means of tie rods 5. According to the invention, the long portion of each main magazine which is comprised between the transversal structures 2, 2′, has at least the inferior guides 1′ which, upon command can be opened like a door, that is in such a manner that they can pass from the position shown in FIG. 4 with a continuous line to the one shown with dotted line and vice versa, in order to open and close inferiorly the same portion of the main magazine. From the FIGS. 1 and 4 is pointed out that the guides 1′ are welded for example onto respective “L” shaped section bars 6, which carry fixed at their ends the levers 7 in their turn fixed upon a shaft 8 parallel to the section bar 6, and supported rotatably at the ends by means of support 2, 2′.

[0012] At least one of the levers 7 prosecutes beyond the fulcrum shaft 8 with a shaft 107 articulated to the rod of a jack 9 which is articulated at 10 to the near support 2. All the jacks of the apparatus referred to can be of the fluid pressure type or of the electromechanical screw-nut screw type. The jacks 9, if they are of the fluid pressure type, are preferably of the simple effect type and normally extended, in such a manner to maintain the guides 1 normally in closing position of the main magazine.

[0013] From FIG. 5 it can be noted that the lower movable guides 1′ terminate beyond the inferior fixed guides 1′ in order to ensure continuity of the support to the containers during the displacement from 1′ to 1″. The initial end of the guides 1″ is shaped so as to favour the reception, for example with a suitable downward bending.

[0014] At least the lateral inferior guides 1′″ of each main magazine can be provided with longitudinal and continuous fins 11 downwardly oriented and in such directions diverging between them, in order to form a reception zone which facilitates the inlet of the pile of containers cyclically fed into the same main magazine, as mentioned further on.

[0015] For and under each main magazine, is provided a respective ancillary magazine MA1 and MA2 which comprises a flat surface plane 12 having a width for example substantially equal to the distance which passes between the lower fixed guides 1″ of the main magazine (FIG. 5) and having a length a little inferior to the length of the inferior movable guides 1′, such plane 12 being connected to motion means to any suitable kind which consent to pass from a low and substantially horizontal position, as indicated in FIG. 1 with dotted line, to a raised position which contemplates said plan inserted in the lower portion of the relative main magazine, immediately upwardly, complanarly and with a longitudinal alignment with the inferior and fixed guides 1″.

[0016] According to a preferred embodiment, the motion means 20 of the plane 12 are constituted by an articulate quadrilateral which comprises a lever 13 and a pair of levers 14 articulated in 15 and 16 to end appendices 17 and 18 of the same plane 12 and articulated in 19 and 20 to a raised position 121 of a basement 21 which is bearing onto the ground and to which is articulated in 22 the body the body of a jack 23, in its turn articulated to the rod at 24 to the intermediate portion of the pair of levers 14. It is to be understood that the movements of the plane 12 can be effected with different means than the articulated quadrilateral, for example with direct articulation of said plane to the main magazine or to the frame 3 of the packaging machine, even if the utilisation of the articulated quadrilateral system is preferred because it eliminates the limitations that can derive from the overall dimensions of the frame of the packaging machine and because it allows to have the plan 12, when it is in the low position, opportunely out from the plan overall dimensions of the main magazine, so that the latter does not hinder the operator which provides for the cyclic feeding of the containers.

[0017] The plane 12 carries, at a right angle, upon the end farthest to the articulation system, a fixed and upwardly oriented head board 25, while on the other end it carries a head board 26, parallel to the previous one but which in a different manner can be withdrawn upon command below the plan 12. For this purpose the board 26 is mounted upon a slide 27 (FIGS. 1 and 3) slidable upon a guide 28, fixed to an appendix 29 under the plan 12 and upon which is fixed the body of an actuator 30 of said slide, for example the body of a jack.

[0018] When the plane 12 is in the low position, the same is preferably arranged with a light inclination with respect to the horizontal position and the board 26 is in the high position, so that the operator can arrange against this one the packages of containers P put on their edge upon the plane 12, until they constitute a pile that results enough compressed between the head boards 26 and 25.

[0019] Laterally to the plane 12 it is foreseen a vertical and parallel plane 31, fixed, for example, to the frame 21, against which bear the containers piled in the ancillary magazine, so that the same containers result projecting with the same length from the plan 12 and with their sides opportunely aligned.

[0020] From FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 it can be seen that the ancillary magazines are preferably placed inside a box 32 which comprises partially also the main magazines and which is laterally provided with doors 132 controlled by microswitches which activate the working of the apparatus only when the same doors are closed. Once the ancillary magazine is filled in the low position and once the doors 132 are closed, when in the main magazine the containers come to interest only the inferior fixed guides 1″, a sensor 33 (FIG. 1) detects this condition and actuates the following steps of work. The inferior and mobile guides 1′ of the main magazine are opened as shown with dotted line in FIG. 4 and the plane 12 of the ancillary magazine is raised as shown in FIG. 4 and as shown with continuous line in FIG. 1.

[0021] Successively the guides 1′ return in the active position indicated with continuous line in FIG. 4, in order to support the new pile of containers inserted in the main magazine, then the movable board 26 is moved downwardly and the plane 12 is carried back empty in the low position for the repetition of a new working cycle.

[0022] In order to avoid dead times during the working phase, it can be provided that after the ancillary magazine is filled with containers and after the closure of the doors 132 of the box 32, the filled ancillary magazine raises up and conveniently gets near to the main magazine, in order to reduce the times of the next supply travel of this latter magazine.

[0023] If the main magazine is realised with a considerable length, in the portion of same which is interested by the mobile guides 1′, there can be laterally provided motorised conveyers 34 (FIG. 3) which operate with friction on the sides of the pile of containers, in order to feed progressively the same containers upon the fixed guides 1″, so that it is avoided an excessive thrust on the bottom container that cyclically must be extracted from the head retainers 35 of the main magazine, by means of the suction cups 36 which are provided for the cyclical insertion of the same container inside the packaging machine. The conveyers 34 are for example provided with the possibility to oscillate upon fulcrums 37, in order to be spaced during the phase of insertion of the pile of containers in the main magazine, so that they not interfere with these latter. The actuation means of the conveyers 34 are not shown in the drawings, because they are conceivable and easily realisable by persons skilled in the art.

[0024] Several variants and modifications can be referred, for example, to the utilisation of different means from those described for the operation of the movable guides 1′, that could be, in a different manner, derive their motion from the movement of the plane 12, for example by means of suitable cams. Other variants can be referred to the fact that in the portion of the main magazine cyclically fed by containers, also the lateral guides are movable, in addition to the bottom guides 1′, to avoid undesired interferences of the pile of containers with the same lateral guides. For this purpose, the lateral guides could be, for example, combined with the oscillating structure which provides for the movements of the conveyers 34. 

1) Composite magazine having a high autonomy, for the feeding to a filling or packaging machine of pre-formed and flattened cases or containers, hereinafter briefly called containers, of the type comprising at least a main magazine (MP1), suitably inclined with respect to the horizontal, in which the containers are piled up and which is provided on the lower end with retainer means (35) and with means (36) to extract cyclically a container and to feed it to the operating means of the packaging machine, characterised by the fact that the said main magazine is realised with an extensive length and with a long upper portion which upon command can be opened and closed downwardly, below the same main magazine there being provided an ancillary magazine (MA1) which initially is in a substantially horizontal position, in order to be easily supplied with a pile of containers which the same magazine supports with end supports (25, 26) and with a bottom plane (12) which leaves uncovered lateral portions of the bottom of the pile which results laterally and superiorly free, means being provided which permit that when the extensive upper portion of the main magazine is emptied of the containers, the said portion of the main magazine is opened downwardly and means are provided to raise up the ancillary magazine, so that same inserts its pile of containers in the said main magazine which in phase sequence closes itself to retain the same pile, while the ancillary magazine returns in the low position for the repetition of a new working cycle. 2) Magazine according to claim 1, in which the inferior guides (1′) of the portion of the main magazine which must be cyclically supplied with containers, are fixed upon respective section bars (6) which at least at their ends carry fixed levers (7) in their turn fixed upon a shaft (8) which is parallel to said section bars and which by its ends is supported rotatably by the annular structures (2, 2′) which support at the ends the remaining guides (1) of the main magazine, at least one of the said levers being provided with an extension arm (107) beyond the fulcrum shaft, connected with means which upon command bring said section bars with the guides (1′) to a reciprocally close position or closure position of the bottom of said of portion of magazine, or in the spaced apart position or aperture position of the bottom of the said magazine. 3) Magazine according to claim 2, in which the oscillating means of the fulcrum shafts (8) of the inferior mobile guides (1′) of the main magazine, are constituted by fluid pressure jacks (9), or of the electromechanical type, with screw and nut-screw. 4) Magazine according to claim 3, in which the inferior mobile guides (1′) of the main magazine, when in the closing position of the said magazine, terminate beyond the inferior and fixed guides (1″) of the same main magazine and are coplanar to said guides, in order to ensure continuity of support of the containers during the travel form the first to the second bottom guides. 5) Magazine according to claim 4, in which at least the lower lateral and fixed guides (1′″) of the portion of the main magazine which cyclically is fed with containers, may be provided with longitudinal fins (11) downwardly oriented and diverging, in order to form inlet guides that facilitate the inlet of the pile of containers into the same portion of magazine. 6) Magazine according to claim 5, characterised by the fact that according to an embodiment the lateral guides (1, 1′″) of the portion of the main magazine which is cyclically fed with a pile of containers, instead of being fixed can be connected to a suitable extension of the oscillating structure (6) which carries the bottom guides (1″) of the same portion of magazine and which is assembled upon a fulcrum shaft (8) placed at a level which is the same or which is superior to the one of upper lateral guides, the whole in such a manner that said portion of magazine can be opened and closed cyclically not only in the inferior portion but also in the lateral portion, in order to allow the inlet of the pile of containers into the main magazine, without interferences between the same containers and the said lateral guides. 7) Magazine according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that it can comprise, if necessary, on the sides of the portion of the main magazine which is cyclically fed with a pile of containers, motorised conveyers (34) arranged to be moved away or to be moved near from or to the sides of the pile cyclically fed, firstly by to not interfere with said pile during the supply phase and then to interfere with the same pile once the supply has taken place, in order to control the downward shift of the same pile and to avoid an excessive pressure upon the bottom container of the main magazine, so that this latter can be easily pulled out and fed to the filling machine. 8) Magazine according to claim 7, in which the motorised conveyers (34) which control the downward movement of the pile of containers cyclically fed to the main magazine, are assembled upon fulcrum-oscillating structures (37) parallel to the guides (1) of the same magazine, if necessary upon the same structures which carry the bottom guides (1″) and the movable lateral guides (1, 1′″) of the same main magazine, as in variant of the claim
 6. 9) Magazine according to claim 1, in which the ancillary magazine (MA1) is assembled upon a suitable support structure which has the possibility to oscillate upon at least an axis which is horizontal and orthogonal with respect to the same ancillary magazine and with respect to the main magazine (MP1). 10) Composite magazine according to claim 1, in which the ancillary magazine (MA1) is assembled with levers (13, 14) upon a fixed support structure (21, 121), in such a manner that it is formed an articulated quadrilateral structure, connected with an oscillation actuator, for example a fluid pressure or electromechanical jack (23), which upon command carry the plane (12) of the same main magazine from a slightly inclined position with respect to the horizontal position, suitable to supply the magazine with the pile of containers, to the raised position for the insertion of the same pile of containers into the main magazine (MP1). 11) Magazine according to claim 1, in which the loading plane (12) of the ancillary magazine is provided with projecting head boards (25, 26), of which the one supporting the weight of the pile of containers during the phase of supply of the main magazine is movable to disappear and for this purpose is for example fixed upon a slide (27) which runs upon a perpendicular guide (28, 29), placed inferiorly with respect to said loading plane and upon which is fixed a jack (30) connected with a rod to said slide, the whole in such a manner that once the insertion of the pile of containers in the main magazine has taken place, said head board (25) which results placed under the same pile, is withdrawn in correct phase below the loading platform of the ancillary magazine, so as to not interfere with the same pile of containers when the ancillary magazine is lowered in the rest and new supply position. 12) Magazine according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that at least upon one side of the main magazine (MA1), when the same is in the low supply position, there is provided parallelly a vertical and fixed wall (31), suitable as reference mark for the support of one end of the containers placed on the edge and piled upon the loading plane (12) of said magazine, so that the same containers result aligned and projecting with the same length from said loading plane and result in the better condition for the subsequent insertion without interference in the main magazine. 13) Magazine according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that it is placed inside a box (32) with lateral doors (132) controlled by safety sensors which activate the working cycle of the same composite magazine only if the said doors are closed. 